NJ - Victim or Victor - The choice is yours.
V for Victory • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 44 viewsNotes
Transcript
Good morning today we begin a new theme: “V for Victory” Living a victorious life. We will look at the choices we have, and are we living as a victim or are we living as a victor? The choice is ours.
A victim focuses on outward pressures, while a victor focuses on inward confidence. Someone with a victim mentality only sees the problems around them. On the other hand, someone with a victor mentality will look within themselves to find solutions and carry on.
LETS PRAY
Overtime I have witnessed people who have been abused, downtrodden and come from terrible backgrounds live like champions, and seen people who have been given significant advantages and opportunities act like victims.
Most often, it’s not circumstances, but attitudes that define people (attitude determonds altitude).
Some of the mindsets that separate victors and victims are:
VICTORS take responsibility when things go wrong.
VICTIMS look for someone else to blame.
VICTORS look ahead with optimism and hope.
VICTIMS see the future as a dark and scary place.
VICTORS see talented people as potential team-mates.
VICTIMS see them as potential threats.
VICTORS are aware of their need to continue to develop and grow.
VICTIMS think that life would be better if only everyone else would develop and grow.
VICTORS see challenges as an opportunity to overcome adversity.
VICTIMS see them as more evidence that the universe is conspiring against them.
VICTORS plan for the future.
VICTIMS worry about it.
VICTORS paddle their boat where they want it to go.
VICTIMS go wherever the currents take them.
VICTORS understand that their life is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
VICTIMS don’t know what that means, but their life becomes one anyway.
VICTORS regularly do the hard things.
VICTIMS follow the path of least resistance.
VICTORS can’t imagine being anything else and feel free.
VICTIMS can’t imagine being anything else and feel trapped.
There are many more that we could mention, but i am sure you get the idea. So the question is, will you choose to be a Victor or a Victim? They both have a segnificant outcome in our lives.
We could look at it like this: To see yourself as a victim is like taking a step backwards, and to see yourself as a victor is like taking a step forward, Joseph is a great example of someone choosing to step forward in all circumstances, seeing himself as a VICTOR not a victim.
Don’t Step Back- Step Forward
Joseph’s story is told in the book of Genesis, in fact the bible gives 20 chapters to Joseph, quite a lot when we think about it.
If you do not know the story of Joseph I would ecourage you to go and read it this week. This morning we will only scratch the surface of what God can reveal to us through the life of Joseph.
Lets turn to:
Genesis 37:1–11 (NLT)
1 So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner. 2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. 3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. 4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him. 5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” 8 His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. 9 Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!” 10 This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” 11 But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.
As a youngster… Joseph was a little overconfident… his natural self-assurance… increased by being Jacobs favourite son… and his knowledge of Gods plan for his life… seemed to irritate his brothers…
So much so… they conspired against him…
But… Joseph survived and prospered many hardships, where many of us may have failed, in fact, he won the hearts of whoever came across his path.
Perhaps we can identify with one or more of these hardships that Joseph experienced
[1] SOLD INTO SLAVERY - He was betrayed and deserted by his family
[2] POTIPHAR’S WIFE TRIED TO SEDUCE JOSEPH - He was exposed to sexual temptation
[3] POTIPHAR SENT HIM TO PRISON - He was punished for doing what was right
[4] He endured a long imprisonment
[5] INTERPRETS DREAMS - He was forgotten by those whom he helped
As we read his story, we can see that he always responded positively, and his response always transformed each of the setback. He stepped forward.
Joseph chose to be a victor not a victim. He didn’t spend time asking why? But what shall I do now?
We can learn from Joseph, there is nothing like the presence of God to shed new light onto a dark situation. Bring God into the moment
Joseph would have never become the second to Pharoah if he had of chosen to see himself as the victim.
We to have the victory because of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made on the cross, we do not have to see ourselves as victims anymore but as overcomers, more than conquerors.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
A Song of Ascents. 1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.